Teamless?? Not at all, Ong Tee Keat do have his own team.

Below is reported in NST about genuis Ong Tee Keat.

2008/07/27

Can teamless Tee Keat run a safe race for MCA presidency?
Alan Ting, BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, SUN:

Ever since announcing his candidacy for the MCA president’s posts, party vice-president and Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat had maintained that he would run the race without a team.

While party members and observers predicted that the party’s elections, scheduled for October, would be a mirror of the Team A vs Team B factional contest during the leadership crisis in 2003, the question now was how would Tee Keat fare by going solo.

A senior party member and several others had pointed out that Tee Keat needed to have a team and that racing solo would be a no-go for him because the stake was just too high.

His challengers were said to have had assembled “a group of strong candidates"

with backing from influential leaders, including former MCA President Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik.

Dr Ling denied assembling a team for the elections but admitted that he did talk to some party leaders in what he described as “a normal conversation.”

The group was said to be consisted of the remnants of Team A during the crisis that had forced Dr Ling to retire from party presidency and politics under a peace plan mooted by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The line-up was said to be comprising former MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, vice-presidents Datuk Donald Lim and Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn, Wanita MCA Chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen and Ling’s two sons — Datuk Ling Hee Leong and Ling Hee Keat.

“It looks like Soi Lek is going to take on Tee Keat with a full backing from the team,” said a party grassroot leader.

“If that is the case, how is Tee Keat going to contest if he does not have a team?” he asked.

Dr Chua did not deny the existance of such team when Bernama spoke to him recently, saying he intended to make a comeback and that he had a team backing his candidacy.

“I would have retired quietly from politics if not because of the circumstances after I had admitted that I was the person in the VCD. They treated me like a pariah.

“If they have treated me in a more courteous manner, I would have gracefully retired and would have no intention to make a comeback to active politics,” he said.

While Dr Chua was still tight-lipped about the position he was going to contest, he had not ruled out that several current MCA leaders as well as senior and veteran politicians would back him up if he decided to go for the party’s top post.

“Some people still think I have the experience. I’m a straight-forward politican. They think I have got the guts to voice out the issue affecting them,” he said.

Party members and insiders were already predicting that Dr Chua would go for the presidency, with Donald Lim as his running mate for the deputy president’s post, and Dr Fong and Dr Ng going for the vice-presidency.

Some of Tee Keat’s supporters said they did not see any problem if the transport minister wanted to go solo.

“Why not? All the while, this so-called `cai tan’ (list of candidates) was more to advance the interest of a team... it’s not a real teamwork,” said former senator Tan Boon Yu.

“For the good of the Chinese community, why not? If you work on the basis of a real teamwork, it is not a problem,” he added.

However, other supporters were more apprehensive about Tee Keat going solo, saying in real politics, the “lone ranger” approach was untenable.

Moreover, they were concerned about the prospect of Tee Keat taking on a formidable team, which had the political clout as well as financial resources.

“I have advised him to relook into his approach. At least he must have a pool of supporters to back him,” said MCA Pandan division chairman Eric Ong, a staunch Tee Keat supporter.

A party insider said Tee Keat should take into consideration the 2005 party election results.

“In 2005, Tee Keat finished third in race for the vice-president’s posts after Dr Fong and Dr Chua. This is despite the support that he had from the youth movement.

“No doubt, when he contested for the MCA Youth chief post in 1999, he did it solo and won. But now, he has to think hard if he really wants to go for the president’s post,” he said.



Former MCA deputy president Tan Sri Lee Kim Sai, who is Tee Keat’s political mentor at one time, was skeptical that the latter would simply go alone in his quest for the presidency.

He said going solo was just Tee Keat’s way of saying that he did not want to create a faction in the party.

“Sometimes people don’t need to tell you that you are a partner. At the right time, their body language will tell you that.

“Having a team is not a bad thing. What we don’t want to see is factionalism.

I don’t think he (Tee Keat) will go alone and tell other people to get out of the way, because if you do that, you are basically walking to the grave.

“If people support him, he will try to avoid giving the impression that he is creating a faction. That’s his style,” Lee told Bernama.

Tee Keat had served as the political secretary to Lee when the latter was the health minister back in the 1990s.

But if Tee Keat decided to have a running mate, the next question was, who would be that person?

MCA Youth Chief and Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai seemed to have answered the question when he announced that he was not running for the number one post and instead, would support Tee Keat for the presidency.

“I guess he is the running mate for Tee Keat under the direct election manifesto,” said an MCA member who declined to be identified.

“However, the safest bet will be for Liow to go for the vice-president’s post.

But then again, who else would be Tee Keat’s running mate if not Liow?” said a divisional leader.

Some party members believed it would be too risky for Liow to go for the deputy presidency as there were “interested parties” who would want to defeat him in order to take over his ministerial position.

A grassroot leader from Perak believed that Tee Keat was unlikely to have Datuk Ong Ka Chuan — the elder brother of MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting — as his running mate as his hardcore supporters were said to have advised him against doing so.

While Tee Keat was grappling with the question on the right running mate, should he decided to have one, political observers were already looking at the direction where another former MCA vice-president Datuk Chua Jui Meng would be heading.

“Both sides are now looking at who he will team up with should he succeeded in defending his divisional chairman’s post,” a grassroot leader said.

The answer would be clearer with the results of the divisional elections today.
Tan Sri lee Kim Sai do really understand Ong Tee Keat very well.

Who is Ong Tee Keat team?

1. Liow Tiong Lai
2. Wee Ka Siong
3. Yap Pian Hon
4. Lim Ah Lek (If Ling Liong Sik trying to play something)
5. Chua jui Ming
6. Selangor delegate
7. MCA Youth delegate
8. Pahang delegate

Chua Soi Lek to contest President MCA post......... I think if Chua win, the whole MCA members will not hold their head high after that.